Swiss life-science hiring monitor: October 2026
754 pharma, biotech and medtech vacancies on 7 October 2026: where they are, which fields hire most, which languages they ask for and who lists the most.
· 4 min read
Every month we count the vacancies on Life Science Work and report what they show about hiring in Swiss pharma, biotech and medtech. This is the first edition, so it sets the baseline. From November we compare month on month.
In short
- 754 vacancies at 172 employers on 7 October 2026. 155 were first published in the last seven days, 575 in the last 30.
- Production hires most. Quality, manufacturing, process engineering and supply chain make up 58% of vacancies; drug discovery and preclinical research 16%.
- The plants rival Basel. Valais (142 vacancies) and Aargau and Solothurn (117) are close behind the Basel region (144).
- English leads, German follows. 77% of vacancies are written in English or ask for it, 49% German, 8% French and 2% Italian. None requires Swiss German.
- 38% name GMP, and none publishes a salary.
Where the jobs are
| Region | Vacancies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Basel | 144 | 19% |
| Valais | 142 | 19% |
| Aargau and Solothurn | 117 | 16% |
| Zurich | 97 | 13% |
| Vaud and Lausanne | 75 | 10% |
| St Gallen and eastern Switzerland | 67 | 9% |
| Bern | 50 | 7% |
| Ticino | 18 | 2% |
| Zug | 12 | 2% |
| Lucerne and central Switzerland | 12 | 2% |
| Geneva | 8 | 1% |
| Fribourg | 8 | 1% |
| Neuchatel and Jura | 4 | 1% |
Valais is almost one employer: 125 of its 142 vacancies are Lonza's. Aargau and Solothurn are chemical and active-ingredient makers such as Dottikon Exclusive Synthesis and Siegfried. Geneva's 8 says more about our sources than about Geneva: we read fewer employers in French-speaking Switzerland so far, and covering them better is our next task.
What the jobs are
| Field | Vacancies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Quality (QA and QC) | 144 | 19% |
| Manufacturing and MSAT | 133 | 18% |
| Drug discovery and preclinical | 119 | 16% |
| Process and equipment engineering | 103 | 14% |
| Analytical development | 72 | 10% |
| Supply chain and logistics | 55 | 7% |
| Medtech R&D | 32 | 4% |
| Regulatory affairs | 23 | 3% |
| Bioinformatics and data science | 16 | 2% |
| Clinical development | 14 | 2% |
| Business development and alliance | 14 | 2% |
| Clinical operations | 9 | 1% |
| Market access and HEOR | 9 | 1% |
| Medical affairs | 8 | 1% |
| Pharmacovigilance | 3 | 0.4% |
The largest market is in making and testing medicines, where GMP experience is the entry ticket. Clinical, regulatory, medical and commercial roles together come to 80 vacancies, 11%.
By contract, 625 vacancies (83%) are permanent, 65 (9%) are internships or PhD positions, 51 (7%) are fixed-term and 13 (2%) are part-time.
Languages, GMP, salaries and permits
- Languages: 577 vacancies (77%) are written in English or ask for it, 369 (49%) German, 62 (8%) French and 13 (2%) Italian. A vacancy counts for every language it uses or asks for, so the shares add up to more than 100%. None requires Swiss German.
- GxP: 287 vacancies (38%) name GMP, 19 GDP, 17 GCP and 6 GLP.
- Salary: not one of the 754 publishes a salary.
- Work permits: fewer than ten say anything about them. Our CV guide explains how to state yours in one line.
Who lists the most
Lonza leads with 165 listings, then Roche (79), Incyte (33), CSL (26), the University of Zurich (22), Novartis (21), Dottikon Exclusive Synthesis (18), Siegfried (18) and Bachem (16). The ten employers with the most listings account for 54% of all of them, while 101 of the 172 employers list a single job.
These counts show what each employer advertises on the sources we read, not how many people it will hire: an employer whose career site we read in full looks larger than one we cover in part.
In the news
- Roche starts a CHF 790 million plant in Basel. Bau 51, a production building for synthetic molecules due in 2030, brings about 200 skilled jobs. Roche
- Novartis plans to end biologics production in Kleinbasel by the end of 2027, with about 130 jobs at risk. Novartis
- Zimmer Biomet may cut up to 580 of about 730 jobs at its implant plant in Winterthur. swissinfo.ch
How we count
The figures are the vacancies live on Life Science Work on 7 October 2026. We collect them every day from the federal job portal job-room, from university and hospital portals and from the career sites of dozens of employers, and employers also post with us directly. We leave out pharmacy counters, field sales, recruitment agencies and open applications. Languages, GxP and permit details are read from the text of each ad, and a vacancy counts from the date its source gives it.
Our coverage is not even: it is strongest in Basel, Valais and Aargau and thinner in Geneva and in medtech. Read the shares above as shares of what we list, not of the whole Swiss market.
Next month
The next monitor appears in early November, with the change since October. Meanwhile, browse the vacancies from the last seven days, set up a job alert from any search, or subscribe to the Swiss Life Science Briefing for the news behind the numbers.